These Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes and Strawberry Frosting are both gluten free, grain free, dairy free, nut free and Paleo friendly! Perfect for anyone and everyone you know, including yourself!

This past Saturday was my birthday and holy hell did I have a lot of fun. Kyle took me to True Food Kitchen for brunch and I had quite possibly the greatest chicken sausage patties of my life. I'm determined to recreate it. Oh, and I also got a yummy gluten free blueberry muffin! Because, birthday. After that, we did a scavengery hunt type thing through Urban Adventure Quest that led us all around downtown in and out of buildings and places that I probably never would have visited otherwise (like the Tiffany dome!) I loved it! We hung by the pool for a bit before heading back to our old 'hood to go out. I had grand plans for Sunday in the recipe testing and food photography world but I had about 22 too many frosés to make that happen. Instead, I watched about 14 hours of Flea Market Flip. Super productive, I know. I did eventually get a couple recipes cracked out... including these bad boys!

I'll be honest, this frosting flavor wasn't my original plan. I had dreams of doing a banana frosting but they fell totally flat when it came out looking like literal vomit. I abandoned that idea pretty quick and moved on. I thought back to the vegan friendly blueberry cashew butter I made recently and how I used freeze dried blueberries in that. Why the heck shouldn't I keep using that idea?! Freeze dried fruit is so fun. It's tasty to eat, adds a touch of sweetness, doesn't add juices to the recipe AND it turns it into a really pretty color!

I really, really love buttercream frosting, but wanted this recipe to be completely dairy free so I went for the good ol' coconut cream frosting route and decided to use strawberries because I've been obsessed with them lately. I was recently given some stevia by a brand called Sweet Leaf and I had been really excited to use it. It was the perfect option for this frosting because it is clear so it didn't alter the color from the pretty pink it had turned into. I love the flavoring honey or maple syrup can add, but they can both turn everything kind of poop colored. AND NOBODY LIKES POOP COLORED FROSTING.

Anywho, I had made these cupcakes on Sunday but didn't actually make the frosting until a couple days later so had kept the cupcakes in the fridge for safe keeping. They still tasted just as good as they had on day one, so if you want to store them that way, go for it! Once I started frosting them, my boyfriend couldn't keep his hands off them. I had to make a rule that he's not allowed to eat any new recipe/dish until I'm 100% positive I get my shot. He had problems listening this time (#compliment) but his stealing of a cupcake actually turned into a pretty good photo so I forgive him.

The cupcakes and frosting are both gluten free, grain free, dairy free, nut free and Paleo friendly! Perfect for anyone and everyone you know, including yourself! So, make these cupcakes and when someone tries to take one of them before you're fully done decorating with this frosting, just force them to slow down, take a photo and then thank them for helping you be all food-photo-artsy. Life tips from Katie, eh?

The nutritional labels are a product of online calculators such as MyFitnessPal. While I try to provide accurate nutritional information to the best of my ability, these figures should still be considered estimates.